The White House appears to have altered its messaging around the trade war with China, and it seems China views it as a "win" for them.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, saying that there should be a "de-escalation" of the tit-for-tat tariff increases.
Bessent promised that "America First" didn't mean that the country was abandoning trade allies. It does not mean "America alone," he promised. “We’re going to have a fair deal with China,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.
But the tough talk with China isn't working, Politico reported.
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“If a negotiated solution is truly what the U.S. wants, it should stop threatening and blackmailing China and seek dialogue based on equality, respect, and mutual benefit,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday before Bessent's speech to the IMF. “To keep asking for a deal while exerting extreme pressure is not the right way to deal with China and simply will not work.”
A CNN reporter said that this "U-Turn" from Trump shows "the U.S. blinked."
Still, Bessent confessed that there isn't a solution coming any time soon.
The report said he was "eyeing a two-to-three-year timeline for 'the full rebalancing' of the relationship between the U.S. and China." The goal is to reach a deal sooner, however.
Bessent also promised that it "won't take years" to negotiate trade deals with other countries the way it did with renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement into the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement. In those negotiations, it took 18 months to agree.
Bessent said the U.S. has a list of things that it wants in trade negotiations and that's why it will go faster.
"We know what we want in terms of the non-tariff trade barriers,” he said. “The tariffs are easy. So I don’t think that this is an extended process at all, because, again, the alternative for the countries is going back to that maximum level from April 2, which I don’t think is an appealing alternative.”